Government Committed To Sustainable Forest Management

 
SANDAKAN, Aug 10 (Bernama) -- The federal government is committed to sustainable forest management and is confident that the Sabah government will not award logging licences indiscriminately, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Friday.

"If there is any request for timber logging, (Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri) Musa (Aman) won't easily give licences so that he can protect the rainforest. (Sabah Forestry Department Director Datuk) Sam (Mannan) is equally stubborn when it comes to this, and there is nothing anyone can do about it.

"If anyone requests for forest concession for timber logging, I will say no and I know Musa will say no," the prime minister said.

He was speaking when opening the Rainforest Discovery Centre (RDC) here in conjunction with the 36th World Forestry Day.

He said Malaysia was rich in biodiversity, thanks to its tropical rainforests.

"We must defend this because we get a lot of benefits from the tropical forests, like medicines and so forth," he said.

Abdullah said the government had taken various steps to promote sustainable forest management, especially through the criteria system, indicators, activities and the forest management standard 2001 certification.

A total of 65 companies had obtained the certification up to 2005, he added.

He said the country could still maintain about 60 per cent of its total area, or 19.52 million hectares, as forest area.

"Of this, 14.39 million hectors have been gazetted as permanent forest reserve while 3.21 million hectares have been earmarked as protected areas," he said.

He said that under the Ninth Malaysia Plan, the government had taken several measures to boost sustainable forest management, including encouraging the conservation of water catchment areas, sustainable development of forest produce through the manufacture of herbal and medicinal products, ecology tourism and biological exploration.

Logged forest areas must be replanted, he said.

"This is very important and I hope that the forestry department officers will constantly enforce the relevant laws to protect the forests," he said.

The government had also expressed its highest commitment to the "Heart of Borneo" conservation, a joint conservation project involving Malaysia, through Sabah and Sarawak, Brunei and Kalimantan in Indonesia, Abdullah said.

"The Heart of Borneo covers a big tract in Borneo and is very important. It is an Asean project which is good for research and activities that lead towards forest protection," he said.

At the function, Abdullah also witnessed the signing of two memorandums of understanding (MoU) -- the first between the Sabah Foundation Group and Synergy Farm (M) Sdn Bhd for an estate project to cultivate the Cavenish banana and the second, between the Sabah and Kedah governments, for a rubber plantation project.

-- BERNAMA